And how you can be involved
Just a little insight into the world of an analyst
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One of the benefits of being a Celent analyst is the huge window I have into the insurance world. I am close to my fifth anniversary with Celent and enjoy every day, with the variety and wonderful people with which I work, both in and out of the company. My job isn't just sitting in my office writing, but has a broad range of activities. My favorite activity is what we call analyst access. Our customers have access to our global analysts for an unlimited number of hour-long conversations about any related topic. It doesn't have to be related to our research, and more often than not, isn't. This is where I learn more about interesting topics like innovation labs, fluidless underwriting, digital transformation, back office implementation, and dozens of other topics. I learn from you. |
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Just last year I did over 400 of these calls. Think about that 10 full-time weeks, on the phone, with our customers, learning and discussing what they've done, what they're doing, and what they'd like to do. It is incredible. We use those discussions to help guide our research agenda. For example, right now I am working on a report with my colleague Karen Monks. For those of you that don't know Karen, she is an incredible researcher, with the keen ability to see value in data that others don't. She is a joy to work with, and we learn from each other on every project.
In the works
Our current project is a look into real-world metrics from the life insurance new business and underwriting process, from application to issue. This is a report that Celent originally did way back in 2007, prior to the global financial crisis. Karen and I redid the report in 2016, and are working on it again now. The process is simple. Any carrier that has an interest in participating fills out a simple spreadsheet of metrics. The data should be readily available and part of your current key indicators. We are looking at topics such as staffing, volumes, cycle times, and more. Our goal isn't a view that requires hundreds of hours on the carrier's part, but a view of a number of key criteria. We do a second cut of the data, looking at the benefit of automated underwriting, and see this report as the first that will see actual results of the impact of fluidless underwriting.
We hope.
As with any research firm, finding participants is always the challenge. We strike a balance between inviting carriers and pestering them. Many of you have probably gotten those emails from us. This report is a perfect example. Our initial rush of participants was almost overwhelming in volume, and we loved it. Then the real world of year-end, starting a new year, and everyone's workload kicked in, and several carriers backed out. That's disappointing, not just to us, but ultimately to them. While we certainly anonymize the carriers for the report, we do make sure the participants know which carrier in the report is them. For a modest effort, you can compare your metrics to those of your competition. We still have a nice breadth of participants, more than the last report, but as an analyst, you always want more, more, more. If you're interested in participating please let me know.